The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

This is the WMU sports email service nugget of info for today:

"Official Kick Time for 2014 Season Opener Set Purdue announced the kick off time for the 2014 season opener against WMU football on Wednesday afternoon."

- We're playing our season opener on Wednesday afternoon?

- What time is kickoff on Wednesday afternoon?

- Vanna, we need to buy a period.

REALLY, now! This is just plain embarrassing.

(07-17-2014 11:07 AM)Whinny1 Wrote:  This is the WMU sports email service nugget of info for today:

"Official Kick Time for 2014 Season Opener Set Purdue announced the kick off time for the 2014 season opener against WMU football on Wednesday afternoon."

- We're playing our season opener on Wednesday afternoon?

- What time is kickoff on Wednesday afternoon?

- Vanna, we need to buy a period.

REALLY, now! This is just plain embarrassing.

The athletic department really needs to step up and hire a full-time marketing person. I can't believe they haven't hired someone to take Elaine Russell's position yet. Maybe they have and I'm just not aware of it, but that is such a critical position. Hope they find someone to replace Mat Kanan as well. Both are big losses for WMU.

You are right, between that and the (alleged) poster-derp... this is getting embarrassing.

Wait, when did Elaine and Mat leave?

Elaine left a while ago... I want to say late last summer? She was representing UB during football season last year and was also in Cleveland for the MAC Tourney: http://www.ubbulls.com/information/direc...ell_elaine

Kanan is leaving for Oregon State in a couple of weeks.

Great move for both IMO. Tough losses for WMU.

Marketing is one the most high turnover jobs out their. If you're successful you're riding high, if you have a couple of blown campaigns your done. But if you are working for a bureaucracy like WMU you can screw up repeatedly. There is no one measuring their performance, everything you do has to be signed off on by 50 other bureaucrats, so your screw ups have their finger prints on them as well, hence they don't want anyone held responsible.

The job is not about marketing WMU, it's about covering your azz with a lengthy paper trail and staying employed until your pension kicks in.

Kalamazoo has some very good ad agencies. WMU would be wise to get rid of their marketing department and turn it over to a private contractor. They'd get more bang for their buck.

I think that Elaine did an admirable job while she was here in Kalamazoo. At least you could tell that she was trying to creatively market WMU Athletics rather than simply rehashing the same old game day promotions year after year.

This is the first I had heard about Mat. All, I know is that he worked as hard as anyone there to get the message of what WMU Athletics teams were doing. Seems like I would get multiple updates and releases daily from him promoting several sports. While sometimes, I would just delete without reading because I didn't care what the women's golf team had done or that the softball team split a double header in New Mexico, it was always nice to get info on the sports that I really did care about.

You are correct HJ, both are big losses for WMU and the marketing dept. If the apparent schedule poster snafu and whatever rambling comment that Whinny posted to start this thread are any indication of who is taking over on that end is any indication, we better hope they are looking hard for some quality replacements ASAP.

Get ready for Thunder Sticks, Black Out Saturday and 5/3 magnet nights again this year.

From all accounts, both Elaine and Mat did a lot with very little.

One thing I will say about Mat is that he was a smart man to pick football, women's golf and softball (the ladder two play in tournaments at warm climates).

But seriously, kudos to them for doing WMU proud these last several years.

Sean Fagan would be a solid replacement for Kanan.

(07-17-2014 01:46 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Sean Fagan would be a solid replacement for Kanan.

Agree. Would probably be a nice salary bump for him too. But I think he really enjoys working with Hawk and the basketball program. Should be interesting to see what happens there.

(07-17-2014 02:00 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 01:46 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Sean Fagan would be a solid replacement for Kanan.

Agree. Would probably be a nice salary bump for him too. But I think he really enjoys working with Hawk and the basketball program. Should be interesting to see what happens there.

You don't take an assistant media director spot with the intent of staying in it for life. I suspect he'd jump at it. Former assistant SID Matt Holmes would be a nice choice too.

One of the reason Robin Hook is so good at what he does is that he has been a die hard Bronco since he came to Western as a freshmen. I'd like to see us find someone who bleeds the program. Kanan was very good at following all the rules, dotting his I's and crossing his T's, but I never felt he has a passion for it.

I'd love to see someone with charisma and a dynamic personality. Someone like Mitch Zajac comes to mind. He's media savy, has worked with local politicians, is smart as hell (chose us over an Ivy League school), is a die hard Bronco, and has a dynamic personality. He could learn the job.

While we're on it, I think Robin Hook would be a great AD. KB has got to be close to retirement. If we could get 5 or 10 years out of RH before he retires I think we'd be the better for it. Nothing against KB, but I think the Hookster could schmooze the well heeled alums and gazillionares better than KB.

Robin is very good on a bar stool talking bronco sports. None better.

CD - I had this whole thing written out, but then realized that after a while I was simply just agreeing with everything as opposed to actually adding on to the conversation. So I'll simply say: All great points and I agree with every one of them.

(07-17-2014 02:53 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 02:00 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 01:46 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Sean Fagan would be a solid replacement for Kanan.

Agree. Would probably be a nice salary bump for him too. But I think he really enjoys working with Hawk and the basketball program. Should be interesting to see what happens there.

You don't take an assistant media director spot with the intent of staying in it for life. I suspect he'd jump at it. Former assistant SID Matt Holmes would be a nice choice too.

One of the reason Robin Hook is so good at what he does is that he has been a die hard Bronco since he came to Western as a freshmen. I'd like to see us find someone who bleeds the program. Kanan was very good at following all the rules, dotting his I's and crossing his T's, but I never felt he has a passion for it.

I'd love to see someone with charisma and a dynamic personality. Someone like Mitch Zajac comes to mind. He's media savy, has worked with local politicians, is smart as hell (chose us over an Ivy League school), is a die hard Bronco, and has a dynamic personality. He could learn the job.

While we're on it, I think Robin Hook would be a great AD. KB has got to be close to retirement. If we could get 5 or 10 years out of RH before he retires I think we'd be the better for it. Nothing against KB, but I think the Hookster could schmooze the well heeled alums and gazillionares better than KB.

Ive got Zajacs number. Maybe I will let him know that there is a job opened. Although I know that he is pretty happy up in the Eaton Rapids area. It would nice to have him back in Kazoo. Great Guy!!!

Another mistake I believe we make is licensing. I think we should have officially licensed stuff for sale, but I also think the athletic department should be a bit more lax in stopping people from selling stuff that hasn't been cleared by them.

Ultimately, the objective is to get the name and logo out there, not to strong arm people for licensing fees. If you're not a BCS powerhouse you have to have some sort of edge to get your stuff on the shelf.

I've seen some very creative T-shirts produced by students who were trying to make a buck, only to have Bob D'Amilio threaten legal action. Hell, Rivals won't even use our actual logo because they don't want to pay the exorbitant fee.

(07-17-2014 11:07 AM)Whinny1 Wrote:  This is the WMU sports email service nugget of info for today:

"Official Kick Time for 2014 Season Opener Set Purdue announced the kick off time for the 2014 season opener against WMU football on Wednesday afternoon."

- We're playing our season opener on Wednesday afternoon?

- What time is kickoff on Wednesday afternoon?

- Vanna, we need to buy a period.

REALLY, now! This is just plain embarrassing.

So.... the article on the website says

"Purdue announced the kick off time for the 2014 season opener against WMU football on Wednesday afternoon.

The Broncos will take on the Boilermakers at noon ET on ESPNU on Aug. 30. This is the second non-conference game that has officially had a kick time announced for 2014. WMU takes on Idaho at 5 p.m. ET on Sept. 13."

Now if I remember my days with my high school paper... we were always taught to include the day something happened in the lead... i.e. Purdue announced it on what appears to be Wednesday....

So yeah....

Looks like they did it correctly to me.

Then again.. it is easy to bash the athletic department... including the non-existent marketing department.

Thankfully my job isn't too public. I'd hate to have you d-bags pointing out every single mistake that happens (or is perceived to have happened).

Give them a break. WMU is probably the least staffed athletic department in the MAC. You try doing marketing for an entire D1 athletic department like Elaine had to (for what was probably not as much money as you think she is making).

Yeah be nice.

(07-17-2014 03:19 PM)WheresWaldo42 Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 02:53 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 02:00 PM)Hoekjeness Wrote:  

(07-17-2014 01:46 PM)Chipdip2 Wrote:  Sean Fagan would be a solid replacement for Kanan.

Agree. Would probably be a nice salary bump for him too. But I think he really enjoys working with Hawk and the basketball program. Should be interesting to see what happens there.

You don't take an assistant media director spot with the intent of staying in it for life. I suspect he'd jump at it. Former assistant SID Matt Holmes would be a nice choice too.

One of the reason Robin Hook is so good at what he does is that he has been a die hard Bronco since he came to Western as a freshmen. I'd like to see us find someone who bleeds the program. Kanan was very good at following all the rules, dotting his I's and crossing his T's, but I never felt he has a passion for it.

I'd love to see someone with charisma and a dynamic personality. Someone like Mitch Zajac comes to mind. He's media savy, has worked with local politicians, is smart as hell (chose us over an Ivy League school), is a die hard Bronco, and has a dynamic personality. He could learn the job.

While we're on it, I think Robin Hook would be a great AD. KB has got to be close to retirement. If we could get 5 or 10 years out of RH before he retires I think we'd be the better for it. Nothing against KB, but I think the Hookster could schmooze the well heeled alums and gazillionares better than KB.

Ive got Zajacs number. Maybe I will let him know that there is a job opened. Although I know that he is pretty happy up in the Eaton Rapids area. It would nice to have him back in Kazoo. Great Guy!!!

We can't pull Zajac away from Chrysler. Besides, why would he take his engineering degree into PR?

That said, he could pretty much do anything he put his mind to. That kid is brilliant.

Kathy is attempting to completely restructure the department, but Dunn isn't giving her much in the way of funding to work with. Poor Jefff Stone is doing the job of about 5 people. She has got to get her people some help!

(07-18-2014 10:26 PM)broncofan1 Wrote:  Kathy is attempting to completely restructure the department, but Dunn isn't giving her much in the way of funding to work with. Poor Jefff Stone is doing the job of about 5 people. She has got to get her people some help!

Jeff Stone is a f@cking Stud... I owe that dude everything.